Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to electronic messaging tools and, more particularly, to a method, system, and storage medium for validating users of communications services.
In addition to the exchange of personal communications, email messaging, telephone communications, facsimile transmissions, instant messaging, etc. are increasingly becoming popular tools for marketing purposes as well. As a result, many messaging system users have been inundated with large quantities of unsolicited messages that are often unwelcome and/or of little or no value to the recipient. Further, a large amount of these communications can slow down a user's processor, consume a great deal of memory, carry viruses, and distract the user from the important messages that must be individually filtered. For the providers of communication services, there is a significant cost to carry large quantities of unsolicited traffic, and it does not make economic sense for them to incur this cost if their subscribers do not wish to receive these communications.
Preventing these unsolicited communications is difficult since the originators often disguise their intentions by frequently changing their identities and message. Accordingly, it would be desirable to be able to validate originators of messages and identify the messages intentions.